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Published:Sunday, August 3, 2008
By ASHLEY LUTHERN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
MOMENTUM IS BUILDING IN THE EFFORT TO regulate a cheap Mexican sage that produces mind-altering effects.
At one time cocaine, Ecstasy and heroin were legal in the United States, but eventually each was added to the government’s list of controlled substances. Now, there’s a push to regulate the herb Salvia divinorum.
Salvia is a legal substance that resembles everyday sage, but the effects of smoking it are far more powerful than the household herb.
Hallucinations, vivid flashbacks and loss of muscle control have all been described as effects of salvia, said Rogene Waite, spokesperson at the Drug Enforcement Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“I’ll be the first to say it’s not the safest thing,” said Tony Marino, owner of A.R.M. Cigar Co., a Boardman store that carries the herb.
Salvia is usually smoked using a pipe, but can also be rolled or brewed like tea. The plant is native to Mexico and the leaves are usually dried into flakes, unless it is being chewed.
“For years, we’ve been getting reports on salvia, but it didn’t seem to be a terrible problem before the Internet,” Waite said. “Now it’s in the [federal] scheduling process.”
Many Internet sites, including eBay, make it possible to purchase salvia, extracts of salvia and its hallucinogenic oil, salvinorin A, with a few clicks of a mouse. But online providers are not the only places people can buy it.
Local stores, like A.R.M. Cigar, also carry the herb for as low as $25.
Marino ordered salvia for a customer who requested it and has carried the product since. He said that salvia brings in a younger clientele to his store.
“Usually the people that buy it are between the ages of 18 and 23, and in my [cigar] business most of my customers are between 35 and 70 years old,” Marino said. “Lately, I’ve seen more and more people come specifically for salvia.”
Marino said that he warns people of the effects when they buy it and advises them not to drive a car after smoking it.
“It affects each person differently, but for those who are used to harder stuff like crack and heroin, it won’t do much,” he said.
Marino emphasized that he would stop selling it, if it winds up on the controlled substance list. He said he has never tried salvia.
“I think it’s all going to be done by 2010, and then there won’t be business for it,” he said.
His timetable for salvia regulation in Ohio might be accurate.
In April, a bill passed unanimously through the Ohio House that would classify salvia in Schedule 1 of controlled substances, grouping it with drugs such as heroin, LSD and hashish.
The bill is now in the state Senate and assigned to the judiciary criminal justice committee. If passed in a form that both houses of the Legislature agree on, which would probably take at least a year, it would go to the governor to be signed into law.
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill July 22 that will forbid the sale or distribution of salvia to minors beginning Jan. 1, 2009. California is the 11th state to apply restrictions on use of the drug. Ten states have already added salvia to their controlled substance list: Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Delaware, North Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Virginia and Florida. In Maine, possession of salvia by minors is illegal, similar to tobacco laws.
While Marino said that his business for salvia is increasing, local law enforcement has seen little of the drug.
“I’ve only seen it once. It’s not prevalent here, and it’s not illegal,” said Sgt. Michael Huthes, a narcotics specialist with Boardman police.
At Youngstown State University, salvia is not common.
“We haven’t seen it on campus, and we’re not pursuing investigations of substances that aren’t illegal,” said Sgt. Randy Williams of YSU police and the Youngstown Drug Task Force.
Because of the mind-altering power of salvia, people who use it can still be arrested for things such as disorderly conduct, he said.
The same technique can be applied to someone who drives while smoking salvia.
“We can still arrest someone, for example, with acting like intoxicated and they can be charged,” said Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Chris Heverly. “If they were driving under the influence of something, even if it’s technically legal, they can still be arrested for erratically changing lanes or disrupting traffic.”
Doug Wentz, an educator at the Neil Kennedy Recovery Center in Austintown, records information on local patterns of drug use.
“[Salvia] is not prevalent in our area,” he said. “Most people are struggling with cocaine, heroin, marijuana or alcohol.”
Even though salvia is uncommon, Wentz said that the danger it presents should not be underestimated.
“Any sort of hallucinogen isn’t safe,” he said. “If it alters people’s minds, they could put themselves and others at risk.”
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This article is acurate. If you are a carrier of this product, Save a Life and take it off your shelf. Business' that carry this product know it is NOT safe. Whether it is Legal or not..The Hidden Path does NOT promote this product and never will. I am certain The Hidden Path will stay in business without having to sell products like this that cause harm. If you are looking to alter your mind, read a good book, try Feng Shui, say a prayer or learn meditation. There are other ways of altering your mind.
It's your mind. Dont abuse it. Use it.
The Hidden Path
I am a former resident of Youngstown and a mom now living in California. Hiding your head in the sand and ignoring the existence of Salvia is a mistake. Believe me your kids already know about Salvia, which means you should too. In January 2009 it will become illegal in the state of California....it is a dangerous drug....and an easily gotten one too. It is a gateway drug to longer acting even more potent hallucinogenics.
Salvia divinorum is completely non-toxic. Toxicological studies have been performed by Dr. Leander Valdés at the University of Michigan, Jeremy Stewart at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Frank Jaksch of Chromadex Inc., and Wayne Briner of the University of Kansas. Neither Salvia divinorum nor salvinorin A showed toxicity in any of these studies. There is a vast body of empirical evidence that indicates Salvia divinorum is a remarkably safe herb. Indeed, the Mazatecs, who have used S. divinorum for hundreds of years, do not attribute any toxic properties to this plant.
Studies have shown that Salvia divinorum is not addictive or habit forming. Its mechanism of action indicates that it is actually anti-addictive. Many people have reported that Salvia divinorum helped them to overcome Severe Depression or substance abuse problems. This has included addictions to alcohol, caffeine, crack, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, nicotine, and XTC.
Even after over 40 years of scrutiny the plant is still considered harmless. It has no lingering effects like a hangover, and no one, the DEA included, has heard of a person overdosing or experiencing long-term consequences. Calls to law enforcement agencies, hospitals, rehab clinics, colleges and universities across the state, as well as a survey of the rest of the US, failed to reveal Salvia divinorum as a problem or a direct contributor to any addictions, conditions, accidents, injuries, crimes, or deaths.
Salvia divinorum is a remarkably safe medicinal herb that is not a danger to anyone.
So, Drjm, I could spout scientific babble refuting your babble. Bottom line, would you want your teenager involved with salvia divinorum use.........because that, my friend, is by far the largest group using and abusing it.
najjjj:
Ultimately, what it boils down to is parenting and personal responsibility. If you don't want your child using it then talk to them about it. Also, if one truly wants to prevent teens from using it then regulating it to adults would be far more effective than scheduling. As evidence has shown that the war on drugs has actually made illicit drugs more accessible to kids. Its amazing that our legislators would rather trust drug dealers to keep it from children rather than tax paying legal vendors.
Kids are abusing canned air, whip creme, and spray paint at alarming levels, and regardless of laws trying to prevent it, it is still wide-spread. And this comes back to one question, Why are these kids pursuing the abuse of chemicals and substances? I wish more resources would be put into this pursuit and solving it rather than criminalizing and punishing kids for mistakes that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. If we really want to protect our kids, then we wouldn't pass laws that will destroy their lives, instead we would offer help.
Salvia divinorum has tremendous potential for the development of a wide variety of valuable medications. The most promising of these include safe non-addictive analgesics, antidepressants, short-acting anesthetics, and drugs to treat disorders characterized by alterations in perception, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, chronic depression, and bipolar disorder. Studies show Salvia divinorum’s mechanism is actually "aversive"—the opposite of addictive. There are numerous case reports in which people testify to the effectiveness of this herb for managing pain. There are also many psychotherapists who have used this herb in their practice and are impressed with its effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic tool. It has even been used to successfully treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A case report in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology describes a patient that obtained relief from chronic depression by using Salvia divinorum (Hanes, 2001). Many accounts can be found online of people who have recovered from serious, life-threatening depression with the help of this herb. It is especially interesting that these people are able to obtain persistent relief from their depression after only a few treatments. Quite unlike the continuous medication regime required with conventional antidepressants such as Prozac—which in most cases only offer symptomatic relief from depression—Salvia divinorum often produces long-lasting clinical
There are many popular misconceptions about Salvia divinorum. Many of these misconceptions have their origin in a few sensationalistic articles that have appeared in the popular press, and others derive from the absurd advertising claims of unethical herb vendors who deliberately exaggerate the effects of Salvia divinorum in an effort to increase sales.
The fact is that the effects of Salvia divinorum are not appealing to recreational drug users. The majority of people who try it find that they do not enjoy its effects and do not continue using it. People who use it medicinally take it infrequently. It is not euphoric or stimulating. It is not a social drug. Since it increases self-awareness, it is useless as an escapist drug. It is most useful as a natural medicinal herb.
Salvia divinorum is a relatively obscure medicinal herb with no potential for abusel. It does not present a risk to public health or safety. Criminalizing it would only create a problem where one did not previously exist. The regulation of herbal medicines is a matter handled by the FDA, not the Controlled Substances Act. There is no reasonable justification for making Salvia divinorum a controlled substance. Placing it in schedule I would deprive people of a safe natural medicinal herb, and hamper promising medical research.
Schedule I is intended for substances that have a high potential for abuse, a lack of accepted safety, and no currently accepted medical use. Salvia divinorum does not meet any of these criteria.
If we let the government tell us what we can and cannot put in our bodies, we are letting our rights slip away, little by little. If we spend half the money we spend on drug enforcement on drug education there would be less problems.
Anyway I guess all I want to know is: Why should the state have the power to make otherwise innocent people into criminals because of the way those individuals choose to live their lives?
Would if tomarrow the state made McDonalds food illegal because its bad for you?
What if tomorrow the state made McDonalds food illegal because its bad for you?
Exuse my spelling/grammar
~we would then have alot of THIN people!!~~
McDOnalds should be made illegal its terrible.
As a former Mahoning Valley resident, reading the article “It’s cheap, it’s local, it’s legal” made me upset. This article makes Salvia look like a more dangerous drug and a bigger problem than it really is. However the article quotes Sgt. Huthes of the Boardman police as saying, “It’s not prevalent here,” and Doug Wentz as saying, “Most people are struggling with Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana and Alcohol.” While it is true that Salvia is a hallucinogenic, it is an entirely natural plant, not a synthesized chemical compound like LSD. As a drug it will be placed on the schedule 1 list. The ‘high’ from Salvia lasts an average of fifteen minutes when it is smoked, you cannot overdose on it, and there is almost no evidence of it being addictive. And while a lot of teens know of the plant and its uses, the majority of Salvia users are usually more mature adults looking to use it for enlightenment and inspiration rather than to just ‘get high.’ I do not feel that Salvia is a drug that needs to be banned, but rather monitored and sold only to adults, because it can be a safe drug, when used responsibly.
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